ON TARGET: textiles

July 13, 2011, HFN Staff

Target's in-house brands are the focus in the presentation of its home textiles merchandise.

The store devotes a considerable amount of space to the department, which offers both basic and decorative bedding, bath products and soft-home accessories. Each aisle centers the products around one or two of Target's private-label brands: Target Home, Room Expressions and Fieldcrest. Thomas O'Brien, the retailer's licensed collection for home, also gets prominent displays in the section. In addition, it offers one run of Springmaid bed ensembles.

While the section is organized by brands, the labels themselves are not highlighted. There is no signage drawing shoppers into either the bedding or the bath area by brand--nor is there much signage spotlighting pricing.

The department encompasses 10 aisles in all, which are faced by two walls--one of which features sheet sets under the Fieldcrest, Target Home and Room Essentials brands, topped with a sign that reads, "Sink into Comfy Bedding" featuring a family enjoying their time in bed; the other of which serves as a towel wall for brightly colored bath towels with coordinated hand towels and bath rugs, topped with a sign depicting a child in a bubble bath.

The aisles are also specific to products. Aside from the aisles centering on the brands, one aisle is devoted to juvenile bedding and another spotlights mattress toppers and blankets. Still another is totally given over to Room Essentials-branded bed pillows, placed in rack fixtures on both sides, all the way through the aisle.

In decorative bedding, one aisle run offers Fieldcrest bed ensembles on both sides, interspersed with down comforters and feather beds from Woolrich. Both Target Home and Room Essentials bed ensembles also have two sides of aisles all to themselves And next to the Room Essentials aisle, along the store's central walkway, is a run of Springmaid bed ensembles.

The towel wall faces the aisles offering bath towels and coordinated hand towels and bath rugs. Again, the home brands receive their own devoted spaces in this arrangement.

The Target Home bath collections have three runs, including the run along the store's central walkway and two runs along one aisle next to the walkway run. Next to this is an aisle with one side focusing on Thomas O'Brien bath groupings and the other with Fieldcrest bath products. In all of these runs, bath towels take the space on the top shelf and hand towels are on the middle shelf.

Next to this aisle is an aisle with bath accessories such as soap dishes, lotion pumps, shower curtains, toothbrush holders and trash baskets. Both the Fieldcrest and Thomas O'Brien brands take center stage in this section. The bath area also includes five endcaps of beach towels.

The adjacencies to the textiles aisles include small furniture pieces, air treatment and (on the opposite side of the towel wall) housewares. Kitchen linens are not in with other textiles, being placed in the housewares section among the tabletop and cookware products.